Photos: Wagamama waiters go wireless with Symbol

This busy Wagamama near the Tower of London is just one of the chain's 39 restaurants which have equipped their waiters and waitresses with Symbol devices, after finding maintenance bills for their previous devices were too high.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Published: March 31, 2006 -- 10:10 GMT (02:10 PST)

Caption by: Jo Best

Waiters and waitresses use the devices to take customer orders, which are then relayed to the kitchen over wi-fi.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Published: March 31, 2006 -- 10:10 GMT (02:10 PST)

Caption by: Jo Best

The PPT8846s are ruggardised devices which are specially designed to withstand the rough treatment they may get in a busy restaurant. Wagamama now has 350 of the PDAs in the hands of its staff and reports switching to the Symbol handsets has cut its device downtime.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Published: March 31, 2006 -- 10:10 GMT (02:10 PST)

Caption by: Jo Best

Staff dock the devices in a back room of the restaurant between shifts.

According to Wagamama operations officer Jerry Marks, the Symbol devices have saved the Japanese restaurant chain money on the cost of battery packs compared to the iPaqs Wagamama also tried.

This busy Wagamama near the Tower of London is just one of the chain's 39 restaurants which have equipped their waiters and waitresses with Symbol devices, after finding maintenance bills for their previous devices were too high.